|
Switching hosting companies can be a
daunting task, and one that shouldn't be taken lightly. Many things could
potentially go wrong if you're not adequately prepared for the switch. So
follow these steps, and exercise care and diligence to ensure nothing gets
missed.
The following should be done BEFORE
you do anything with the hosting account your moving FROM (i.e. do not
cancel that account yet), and BEFORE you do anything with your domain
name:
1. Order a new hosting account
from the web hosting provider of your choice.
2. Once your new account is setup
and the login information has been sent to you, login to your new
account and setup all your email addresses. When doing this, take note
of your new POP3 and SMTP email settings that you will eventually have
to enter into your email client (i.e. Outlook Express or Eudora).
3. Upload your web files (i.e.
website, databases, scripts, etc.) to your new hosting account. You will
have to use the account's IP address to do this, since your domain name
is still pointing to your old hosting account.
Once you're satisfied that you've
got all your files moved over to the new hosting account, you want your
domain name to start pointing to the new server, instead of the old one.
Continue with the following steps:
4. Change the DNS settings of
your domain name to point to the new hosting account's nameservers. You
do this through your domain name registrar. Once you make these changes,
it may take 24 to 48 hours for propagation to complete. Once that's
finished, your domain name will be directing traffic to the copied
version of your website on the new server, at the new web hosting
company. Also, your email will all be going to the new hosting account
(which is why you would have wanted to setup your email addresses prior
to this).
5. Modify your POP3 and SMTP
email settings in your email client (i.e. Outlook Express or Eudora) to
the new settings for your new hosting account. As soon as you make these
changes, any email that was sent to you after the DNS propagated would
have been stored on the new server.... and should now download into your
email client.
6. Check and double-check to make
sure that everything is running smoothly on the new server, and that all
your files, images, databases, etc have been successfully loaded. You
should check in the old hosting account to make sure there are no new
database entries, form submissions etc, that could have arrived in the
48 hours prior to propagation being completed (in which case they would
have arrived in the old account). If you find anything that is not in
the new account, copy it over. Also check to make sure you have all your
server-side scripts running OK, as often times it is necessary to make
adjustments in the scripts based on the relative locations of certain
files.
Once you are satisfied that you
have everything you need from the old account, and everything is running
smoothly with the new account, you can cancel your old account. You have
successfully switched to a new web hosting company!
Click here to learn more
about how to login to the VFhost Control Panel.
If you don't already have a website
hosted with another company, but instead want to setup a new website with
VFhost, check out our
Getting Started Guide. |